There was music in the evening, and pleasant converse until a late hour, for the guest must sit up and see the moon rise across the meadow—it would make such a charming subject for a picture!
So they sat up to see the moon rise across the meadow.
At breakfast the next morning there was a little banter on the subject of painting. Could not the distinguished painter remain over one day and give his hosts a taste of his quality?
"I surely will if the fair Anna will sit for her portrait!" he courteously replied.
The fair Anna consented.
The servant who drove the cart had gotten on good terms with the servants of the household, and was being initiated into the mysteries of making Dutch cheese.
Meanwhile the master had improvised a studio and was painting the portrait of the charming Anna.
After working two whole days he destroyed the canvas because the picture was not keyed right, and started afresh. The picture was fairish good, but his desire now was to paint the beautiful Anna as the Madonna.
Van Dyck's affections having been ruthlessly uprooted but a few days before, the tendrils very naturally clung to the first object that presented itself—and this of course was the intelligent and patient sitter, aged nineteen last June.
If Rubens could not paint the picture of a lady without falling in love with her, what should be expected of his best pupil, Van Dyck?